The 5 Best Opponents for Josh Taylor After Loss To Teofimo Lopez

Normally it would not work out the manner everybody expects it to.

Most popular heading into his high-profile fight towards Teofimo Lopez, Josh Taylor lost to Teofimo Lopez by unanimous willpower Saturday night at Madison Sq. Backyard. Alongside with his first loyal defeat, the 32-twelve months-outmoded also fumbled away the WBO and lineal junior welterweight championships to the brash trash-talking Lopez.

“No excuses,” Taylor said after the fight. “It wasn’t my handiest. The simpler man obtained tonight. I’ve obtained no excuses. I fought to the wonderful of my ability. He became better than me tonight. It’s miles what it’s. Congratulations to Teofimo.”

Having no longer fought since early 2022, Taylor regarded rusty towards the younger, more agile Lopez, who took advantage and cruised to victory by rankings of 115-113, 115-113 and 117-111 from all three judges.

The defeat resulted in the B/R fight team to ponder a couple of of the alternatives he may presumably beget when it comes time for him to on the arena of the ring later this twelve months or sometime in 2024.

Seize a be taught at what we came up with and descend a idea or two of your bear within the comments.

Taylor arrived to the Lopez fight because the seventh-ranked fighter on The Ring’s pound-for-pound listing, a placement that has him a single space earlier than one Devin Haney.

For these unaware, Haney is one among a exiguous handful of undisputed four-belt champions within the sport, having earned and retained that recognition at lightweight with a pair of wins over George Kambosos Jr. in 2022 and a subsequent defeat of Vasiliy Lomachenko final month.

He has more than one suitors at 135 pounds but has prolonged claimed downside in declaring the burden, prompting ideas he’ll head up the ladder to envision out his luck at 140.

Which, if he is attempting to secure to fight the tip man, arrangement a date with Taylor. And unlike hundreds of alternative would-be showdowns between champions, it may well presumably no longer be so laborious to put collectively.

Both men beget fought below High Incorrect Boxing’s promotional banner and company boss Bob Arum said during the dawdle-as a lot as Saturday’s fight that he’d be presenting Haney’s team with a set of alternatives for his subsequent fight.

First on the listing: The Taylor-Lopez winner.

“Fully,” Taylor instructed FightHype when asked if he would face Haney. “I’m launch to struggling with someone.”

Unnecessary to voice, earlier than Taylor entertains the root of a Haney fight, Jack Catterall would prefer a possibility to resolve some unfinished enterprise.

Catterall is the 29-twelve months-outmoded Brit who met Taylor on his home turf in Scotland 16 months within the past and emerged from the 12-spherical fracas with the realization he’d performed enough to gain.

It became a leer shared by many fans in attendance at the SSE Hydro Enviornment and lots of alternative more media forms who had been both there at ringside or watching on TV/live circulate.

But it did not stride down slightly that with out downside.

As a change, Taylor became awarded a split willpower in which two judges scored it 114-111 and 113-112 in his path to offset the dissenting resolve who seen Catterall, who decrease Taylor spherical the left behold and dropped him within the eighth spherical, because the rightful winner.

Promoter Ben Shalom, really, went a step previous in his review.

“I’ve watched these choices as a fan and to be section of it’s sickening,” he said.

Taylor and Catterall had been indeed scheduled to meet in a rematch earlier this twelve months but it became scrubbed by a Taylor damage. Then, for the reason that Catterall fight became a voluntary defense, it took a wait on seat to making the match with Lopez, who became the WBO’s No. 1 contender.

A fight with Haney is doubtless enterprise. A fight with Catterall is unfinished enterprise.

Which presumably arrangement a fight between Taylor and Regis Prograis is repeat enterprise.

The two men fought in gradual 2020 as section of the collection of events that somehow unified the four major titles within the 140-pound division. Taylor arrived because the IBF champion and Prograis because the WBA champion and the Scotsman emerged after 12 compelling and aggressive rounds with a majority willpower in which he obtained two scorecards and became even on a third,

To voice each had been a success within the aftermath is staunch.

Taylor went on to unify all four belts with a defeat of Jose Carlos Ramirez seven months later, while Prograis has KO’d four straight opponents and returned to belted device when he picked up the WBC strap that Taylor vacated when discussing a crawl to welterweight.

Merely one among the four foes has long previous previous six rounds with the once-beaten Smooth Orleans native, who’ll defend his WBC title towards Danielito Zorrilla subsequent weekend and is inclined to beget Taylor’s title on his lips (again) if he gets previous his unheralded 20th-ranked challenger.

“For me, the amount 1 man on my listing is Josh Taylor,” Prograis instructed BoxingScene.com.

Will beget to you are brooding about your subsequent opponent, the “Face of Boxing” is no longer a tainted desire.

OK, it goes to be a title Gervonta Davis gave himself after a defeat of Ryan Garcia earlier this twelve months, however the legitimacy of a would-be fight between he and Taylor is inarguable.

The 28-twelve months-outmoded from Baltimore is unbeaten in 29 fights and has each scored 27 KOs and established himself as a accurate seat-filler across events in Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Atlanta during the final two years by myself.

He briefly shared championship home with Taylor at 140 pounds following a defeat of Mario Barrios in 2021 and has held title claims of various price at 130 and 135 pounds, too.

The stoppage of Garcia became his third straight in a dawdle that’s seen no fight stride previous 9 rounds and his mix of methodical savagery and single shot energy makes a fight towards Taylor, who’s quicker along with his feet and his fingers but no longer as devastating, a charming possibility.

And collect no longer mediate Taylor, who wasn’t specifically entirely overjoyed to beget Davis billed as a champion in his weight class, hasn’t contemplated it.

“If he needs to name his self a champion,” Taylor instructed ESPN’s Max Kellerman (by strategy of Boxing Scene), “the very best arrangement he can collect that is face myself.”

What a couple of rematch?

For a proud fighter like Taylor, he’d be chomping at the bit to sq. away the very best lack of his occupation.

The case may presumably also unbiased also be made that Taylor’s prolonged layoff eroded his talents to the point the put Lopez may presumably make essentially the most. A feared counterpuncher, Taylor merely had no solutions for “The Takeover” and meekly took the L with out providing major resistance.

The trim cash here says that a rematch would stride a runt bit in a different way. A shorter layoff for Taylor and time to reassess what took location on Saturday night may presumably be the quickest arrangement for the 32-twelve months-outmoded to earn wait on on his throne.

The greatest question is would Lopez desire to fight Taylor with more profitable opponents on his horizon.